Bicky gets a First

It appears that Will Bickford-Smith’s bold American Elections style campaign image has paid off, as ‘Bicky’ has been elected as the next Education Students’ Union Executive Officer. Throughout the campaign Bicky was frequently one of the most noticeable candidates out campaigning, and this has been reflected in the vote.

Bicky’s pledges to get the University back up the league tables and improving the library facilities were evidently well liked by voters and his experience in Politics Society and as Vice-Chair of the Students’ Union Council will have worked in his favour when garnering votes. Like many of the other candidates, his strong stance against the rise of top-up fees will have been popular with students.

He told Impact that he was “over the moon” to get the victory, adding that he “genuinely thought” he wouldn’t attain the victory. What’s he going to do now? “I’ll be going to bed and eating non-processed food”, he said.

Despite stiff competition from many of the other candidates in what has been a tough and close election, Bicky has earned the support of the student population. Now it remains to be seen if his ambitious projects can take the University of Nottingham back up to top of the class.

This university obviously wants this type of exec officer. Good luck people – with your new education officer who does not oppose any type of tuition fee increase – you all deserve to pay twenty thousand pounds a year for your education!

Definitely Michael, and thank god there are checks of power. What I am getting at is that with his election the majority of the electing student body do not care if they pay £3,000 or £20,000. Alas, they will get what they want – someone who does not think it is necessary to cap or limit the rise of tuition fees. It is a very good indication of the social strata attending this university, which is definitely not the problem (I wish to stress that); it is the fact they have no interest in protecting accessible education which sickens me!

But what I am saying is that I am absolutely certain that Bicky will not ignore the students now. We all know that manifestos often do not get read and policies are often not understood, and Bicky never once suggests he won’t try his hardest to cap bills.

Just because something is not mentioned or even if it is, does not mean that individuals will close their ears to the people they represent.

I really do hope that unnecessary, misleading and irrelevant stereotypes are not the source of your opinion!

I also have met him, and after having done so I believe that if you are ready to vote for him then you are ready to pay higher tuition fees. I would love to see Will campaign for a cap on tuition fees (so campaigning for something he is essentially against) – and the reason I say this is because we are talking about Will Bickford-Smith – if you know him then you are bound to understand this. It would be interesting to find out if he signed the DEBTonate petition, which as an initiative was of huge success in getting some feedback from students about the matter – 1579 votes saying no to higher fees, collected in fewer days and less publicized compared to these elections.. If you compare this figure with the amount of votes cast in the SU election then it is apparent that it is a large number of people, which he should also represent – I hope he will, but I highly doubt it!

For those who are concerned about tuition fees – policy was passed at SU Council this year mandating relevant officers to work on a local and national level to fight for students on this. If you all feel so strongly about it then perhaps now may be a good time to get involved with the current execs projects on this…